Saudi law allows only women clerks in lingerie shops

Riyadh, Jan 5 (IANS/AKI) Saudi Arabia has passed a new law that would allow only women salesclerks in lingerie shops.

Wednesday was the final day for cosmetic and intimate clothing stores to get rid of male staff, said a report in the Al Arabiya newspaper.

The measure follows a boycott by women consumers who felt uncomfortable being served by men while purchasing intimate clothing.

The law, however, has been criticised by influential Saudi grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, who said in a sermon at a Riyadh mosque in December that it was disrespectful and a crime to employ women to sell female underwear.

The government’s decision to ban men from lingerie shops was originally taken in 2006.

Saudi males and females commonly only share the company of the opposite sex if they are blood relatives.